Holiday Recap

Here's a little (or, maybe, not-so-little) recap of our holidays,

starting with Halloween!

Last Christmas, as in, Christmas 2012, one of my friends got Selah the book The Wizard of Oz as a gift.  She loved it and declared way back in January that she wanted to be Dorothy for Halloween.  Her request never went forgotten and so we went with a whole "Wizard of Oz" theme.  So fun! 

The cutest little Dorothy and Cowardly Lion you ever did see!!

Sidenote: my mom and I sewed the Dorothy dress...
my first attempt at sewing a piece of clothing!!
And it actually got worn, several times!!

The whole Oz crew, my mom was even able to be in town and be our Glenda! 

Possibly my favorite Halloween to date!!

The aftermath, toooooo much candy!!
We are still eating this candy...it just needs to GO!
but, how do you just throw away good candy?!?!

Wow, that was a while ago, but I just love looking back and remembering, I don't so much enjoy remembering all the stomach illness that passed through our home surrounding Halloween, but the actual day of Halloween was perfect, wonderful memories! 

Now, before I move on to Thanksgiving, I have to share this special trip we took in November to visit my grandparents in Houston.  My grandma was there for a new trial drug to beat this darn cancer, and I just couldn't pass up an opportunity to go visit with her.

We left on a Friday, but before heading to Houston, we made a pit stop at a farm for a little Thanksgiving gig they had going on with fun stories, crafts, and activities for the kids to participate, and a turkey to see, and a hayride.  It was fun, but, it was COLD, sooooo cold, and drizzly, but we went anyway with some close friends, and ended up having a wonderful time! 

Here is Selah making feed for the chickens and Sam, the turkey.

My sweet babes.

After our farm adventure I headed with the kids to Houston, my first road trip by myself with both kids...I was a wee bit (ALOT bit) nervous, for one, I had been up since 4:30am and for another, I hate driving in the rain, hate it, and it was drizzling the whole time and a few times it down poured, as in wipers on highest speed (and, I kept checking them and/or trying to turn them up even more, just to make sure I hadn't accidentally turned them down in the past few seconds from the last time I checked...anybody else do that?!) knuckles turning white around the wheel and eyes burning from avoiding blinking for fear of missing something, down pour!  Thankfully (or not-so-thankfully, depending when you're looking at it) the kids pretty much slept the entire way, that farm really wore them out!  Having peacefully sleeping kids in the car is great, but then, when they don't wake up until 5 and you want them in bed at 7, it's a problem.  The plan was to feed the kids dinner and get them in bed by 7 so I could hop on over to my grandma's apartment, eat dinner with her and visit all night (she isn't able to be around kids, too risky).  Well, that didn't work...Owen finally went down at 8:30ish and turns out Selah didn't go to bed until midnight, when I got home...that's what road trips are for right, enjoying things you don't normally get to enjoy?! :) 

We did end up having a special evening, I could listen to my grandma tell stories all day and all night, and my grandma even gave me a few dance lessons...I had noooo idea my grandparents danced!! In fact, a large part of the reason they live in the house they live in is because the downstairs has a large tiled area perfect for dancing, isn't that just the coolest!? 

The next morning we got to spend even a little more time with my grandma, outside in the drizzle, to keep a safe distance, before heading home.  I made a pit stop to the Galleria to wear the kids out playing and grab some lunch, then back on the road! The weather was dismal, pretty much deja vu of the previous day, and the kids slept until we were about 2 hours from home, and then Owen screamed, and screamed, and screamed.  So we stopped for a little yogurt treat to regroup.  At one point, I handed Selah some money and told her to go buy herself another yogurt (why did I think I could feed two kids, one very cranky by the way, with only one yogurt?!) and since we were toward the back of the restaurant I couldn't even see Selah or hear her voice, all I could hear were the responses back to her...my big girl, waiting in line with real money to place a real order, unbelievable! We finally made it home, safe and sound, with a few sweet welcome home surprises from Daniel...I think he missed us ;) 

Grandpa Great sharing a moment with Miss Selah

Auntie JoJo with her great-great niece and great-great nephew!
Amazing!

Goofy girl at lunch

The picture is a bit blurry but I just love it...it was such a precious time
with family, wish I had a picture with my grandma but we chatted too much, next time! :)

 Well, looks like I drifted off the holiday topic there a bit, but man, was that fun to write!! 

So, Thanksgiving...

Throughout the fall the kids, especially Selah, gathered pine cones as if pine cones would never again grow on trees and fall to the ground, ever again, so we had a ton.  We ended up painting them 

 and turning them into our centerpiece and name place card holders for Thanksgiving breakfast.  

We had family over for breakfast (carmel rolls and omelets...MmMmMm) and then headed over to a friend's house for dinner.

This was the kid table, a joyous place indeed!

I was so thankful to have young kids around for Selah to play with,
in the past she has been the only child/only child her age at holiday events
(joys of being the first grandchild on both sides by a few years),
so she was thrilled to have playmates,
she mentioned on the way home that it was the
BEST Thanksgiving EVER!!

Also walked away from this Thanksgiving with a stellar cranberry recipe:

12 oz fresh cranberries
1 cup sugar
1 cup orange juice

Heat the orange juice and sugar on the stove until sugar is dissolved, add the cranberries and heat until cranberries start popping, let sit for a while to cool and harden.

I may never use canned, jellied cranberries again...it was deeeeelicious!!! 

Then, sometime in the middle of December, a crazy ice storm hit Texas!

At first glance it looks like all this beautiful snow, 

but no, that is pure ice, thick, slippery ICE!

Poor roses :(

Poor tree :(

Although nature can be cruel, we found a way
to have fun in all the slipperiness...sledding!!

Notice Daniel's shoe on top of the grass, it's not
stepping into that white stuff...because it's ICE,
bizarre! 

Ok, I'll stop talking about ice and how amazed by it I was...

onto Christmas!! 

Last year I had this well thought out Advent plan and every day from December 1-December 25 I had some sort of fun activity relating to Christmas and winter for Selah to do...this year didn't quite live up to last year's fun.  I still had activities planned, but toward the end I totally forgot to write them out or follow through with some of them...meh, it was still wonderful and we made many fun memories, and, most importantly, we focused on serving and giving and remembering the birth of our Savior!  

Here's a little of what we did during the Advent season...

On December 1st we did an art activity with a Bible verse that we practiced and tried to remember all throughout December.  I found the printable for this here.

They colored the angel, then I traced the kids' hands with their fingers closed, cut both the angel and handprints out, pasted them together, then let them go to down with the glitter glue.  Selah did pretty much all her own cutting, super helpful!  



















On another day, another freezing, drizzly day, we mailed Santa a letter through Macy's Believe Campaign which raises money for Make A Wish Foundation.  Selah hadn't finished drawing her picture, so we stopped into Target for a hot chocolate treat and both kids drew their pictures to Santa...it went astoundingly well (Owen typically doesn't allow for these types of calm activities to occur).

These moments are just so special!

Selah asked for a pink guitar, I'm so impressed by her
drawing, she stepped out of her comfort zone
of princesses and abstract art (as I like to call the
art that looks like random scribbles) to draw something
that actually looks similar to a guitar! I've never had
the gift of drawing, so this really impresses me!

Owen asked for a trike...or that's how we interpreted it at least :)

Another day I got out our felt Christmas tree that I made a couple years ago, this is the first year Selah requested more ornaments, there just wasn't enough to decorate the whole thing to her satisfaction this year.  

This is how she decorated it the first day, and I eventually
hung it up on a wall with Command strips.

Another day we took Selah to go see the movie Frozen...terrible, terrible mistake.

This is before the movie, when she was enjoying herself
and excited, before we scarred her from ever going to another
movie theatre ever again, ever.

This was her first experience in a movie theatre and I think the excessiveness of it all, extra loud sound and super large screen, was just a little too much stimuli for her.  Not to mention, the Dinosaur movie preview was a little intense, and the old Mickey Mouse cartoon (you know, the ones where characters land on pitch forks and Minnie gets captured and almost eaten cartoons, not the educational, fun-loving Mickey Mouse Clubhouse ones we have grown accustomed to) freaked her out a bit.  So, she was tense from the beginning and so anytime something loud or sudden happened she freaked...we will try again another time, maybe when she's forty, only partly kidding.  She mentioned on the way home, all disappointed, "I thought we were going to see Dora or something."  Poor sheltered child of mine...she does however thoroughly enjoy the music and will sing "Let It Go" at the top of her lungs all throughout the house.  So that's enjoyable...

We moved past our movie-going failure and did a candy cane experiment one afternoon.  We had regular, small candy canes and those soft, round mints.  So we put one of each into hot water and one of each into cold water, and observed what happened.  Our results show that the candy cane in hot water dissolves the fastest and the candy cane in cold dissolves the slowest, with the mints squished in the middle...interesting huh?

Selah was collecting important scientific data,
while Owen collected data of his own,
involving sugar and his taste buds. 

We also watched what happens to baking soda
when you squeeze vinegar onto it.  I put red food coloring
and peppermint extract into the vinegar and, voila,
candy cane vinegar!
I got this idea from here.

One of my favorite activities was having breakfast with Santa one Saturday morning.  Anytime we can do something as a family (and breakfast is involved!) I'm there!

Kids had a blast! There were other crafts and activities, like making

reindeer food (oatmeal and glitter) and making reindeer puppets, and,

of course, pictures with Santa!

I anticipated a little bit of fear and potential screaming from Owen, but, instead, he ran up to Ol' Saint Nick dancing.  I think he did this because we have this dancing Santa at home that he LOOOOVES and will stand next to and say, "On? On? On?" and he shakes his hips along with Santa as he sings "Jingle Bell Rock".  Thank you Great-Grandma for passing this along to us so we have joyful kids sitting on Santa's lap :)



One night, Selah, my MIL, and I went to a church play called It's A Wonderful Life, it was sort of a remake of the movie but basically the only similarities were that during one man's dream three angels visit him.  It was so good though, and so funny! I would definitely go again!

Here's a picture of us waiting in the cafe...
I love that I get to do fun, big kid things like this with her now!

One of our activities was to make felted soap for her friends as a Christmas gift.  This was my first time making these, but I'd say they turned out pretty well.

All you need is a bar of soap (I got the unscented kind, but I think next time I'll get a fun scent for the kids, because it ends up just smelling like the felt), and wool roving (found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels, or probably any craft store, but for sure those two), and a pair of cut up nylons.

  

You pull the wool apart and wrap it around the soap, this is the trickiest part, especially for little hands, so I helped a bit with this part.  Once the soap is wrapped you stick it in a nylon, tie it up tight, and then lather it up in warm water for about 10-15 minutes.

Excuse our dirty dishes... I can't even claim that this is abnormal,
because that is actually very typical,
eep!
Instead, let's focus on that adorable little face there.

Sudsy

  

Once you think the wool is stuck on there pretty good cut the nylon off and set it out to dry (out in the sun is great, but we did this at night so we just left it on the counter, worked just fine).  The wool tends to stick to the nylon, so just be careful when pulling it off.  Easy peasy project, lots of fun, and perfect gift for any occasion! We will definitely be doing more of these in the future...who wants soap for their birthday?!?!

We made a gingerbread house one day. Of course.

  

 Ok, this next one is almost my favorite, you'll see my absolute favorite in just a moment.  But, this one is right up there!  

I took Selah to see the Nutcracker!! The first time for both of us! I had never even read the story before, so I knew a little bit about it, but not really, like I had no idea there was a Rat King and I didn't know the Nutcracker turned into a Prince, basic stuff that I had no clue about.  Luckily we checked out several Nutcracker books from the library to get an idea of the storyline, and my favorite books were The Berenstain Bears and The Nutcracker and Nutcracker by Mary Engelbreit (beautiful, beautiful pictures in this one!).  It was a local professional group, and they did such a beautiful job, Selah loved that there were lots of little kids in there as well.  She was especially amazed at a scene in which pretend snow fell all around...super magical!  

Here we are at intermission.

We went with friends, which made it even better! I can't wait to go next year!!! This will definitely be turned into a tradition!

OK, so, my favorite Advent activity?? 

Participating in a Blessing Bag Party!! 

So fun, so fulfilling, so what Christmas is all about!  The best part is that Selah was able to join me and learn all about the importance of serving and giving, always a good lesson and reminder of what it means to be a Christ follower. 

What is a Blessing Bag Party??  It's a party where people all gather around a table, assembly-style, and fill bags with necessities like deodorant and soap and water, things I take for granted all the time.  Everyone is designated an item ahead of time (we brought toothbrushes) to make it easy to make a lot of bags. Then, the bags are passed out to the homeless.  

Also, during this party, the host read a book to the kids, titled The Sparkle Box by Jill Hardie.  It's a book about how giving is the focus of Christmas and the different ways giving can look.  The sparkle box gets filled with ways the family had served during December (although, I suppose you could make it a year long thing) and then on Christmas morning the box is opened and read out loud to Jesus as his Christmas/birthday gift.  You can read more about the idea of this book here.  We are definitely going to do this next Christmas! 

On Christmas Eve, after going to a church service geared toward families with young children (genius!!) we decorated Christmas cookies for Santa. 

Pretty sure Selah decorated more cookies than I did this year,
which is fantastic, because, really, I'm done after like three.

Owen was limited to a small supply of frosting
and one cookie, he avoided the cookie and
dug straight into the frosting!

What?! Is there something on my nose?! 

Well, that leads us to Christmas morning!

Kid's played with their unwrapped gifts from Santa and looked through their stockings.  

Santa was able to deliver all requests this year...
wonder how long that will last?!

Breaking in the new trike

And then I made Red Velvet Pancakes...yes, you read right...RED VELVET PANCAKES!!! They were as wonderful as they sound! Although, they didn't look as delicious and red as I had hoped, they were more like brown velvet pancakes...but they were delicious, and that's all that matters! Here is the recipe...you're welcome! 

You'd think the waiting between Santa gifts to opening the wrapped gifts would be torture, but it really wasn't, both kids were preoccupied with the couple new toys and Christmas Day parade playing in the background and the family that came to visit.  Daniel thought it would be cruel and unusual punishment to prepare/eat breakfast first, but it worked out perfectly to spread it out.

Love these guys!!

                                      

There's always some sort of constructing surrounding Christmas time!

Playing with the empty box...classic!

This is my SIL and I reading a riddle Daniel wrote to give us a
clue as to what our present was, turns out, we are both really
bad a riddles!  There was one line that mentioned "hot air"
and we both jumped to the conclusion we were going
for a hot air balloon ride...we see them all the time around here
and talk about it often so we just assumed...well, we were wrong haha!
It was a gift certificate to a spa...sooooo much better, but the boys were disappointed
because we got so excited about the hot air balloon idea and we didn't
quite meet that same excitement when we found out what it really was...oops!
Love the gift though! We are so spoiled, can't wait to cash it in!!! 

Here's what else happened in December:

Selah was in a Christmas program for preschool.

She was an angel, and her line was,
"Some angels came from heaven..."

sweet girl

We had a couple weeks of illnesses (mainly this little guy),
so we stayed home a lot. 

One evening when he was feeling better the kids
busted out all our winter gear...
they can always make me laugh!

sillies!

For New Year's Eve we went to an early, kid-friendly party with friends, then came home to ring in the New Year with our family that lives close by.  It was the first year in a looooong time that I stayed up to watch the ball drop (which, it didn't actual drop, unless I missed something...do they not do that anymore??), either way, I watched on TV as the clock in Times Square hit midnight. 

I also read aloud all our slips of paper in our Blessing Jar...you can find the post on that here. It was fun to remember and be thankful for a wonderful year, we will definitely be doing that again this year.

Whew! That was quite a post, thanks for hanging in there! I so enjoy writing these memories out and hope you enjoy reading them! 

Cheers to 2014 (22 days late)!! It's gonna be a good one, I just know it!! 

**If interested, below is a list of all the Advent activities we did.**

1 : Christmas memory verse (angel)

2 : Put up nativity scene and read the Christmas story

3 : Buy a Christmas gift for Owen

4 : Decorate felt Christmas tree

5 : Draw a picture for Santa and mail it

6 : Make gingerbread houses

7 : Pick three toys to donate to children in need

8 : Pick out candy for our candy plates

9 : Make Christmas cards

10 : Holiday craft (Christmas tree with craft sticks)

11 : Play with “snow” (it was homemade play dough, recipe found here)

12 : Bake a holiday treat (or two…or three)

13 : Blessing Bag Party

14 : Candy Cane science experiment

15 : Take a drive to look at Christmas lights

16 : Watch a Christmas movie

17 : Breakfast with Santa

18 : Holiday craft (snowflakes)

19 : ?? no idea, possibly nothing ??

20 : Wear fun Christmas gear and pass out gifts to neighbors 

(ya, didn't actually do this one, last year we did, and I had hopes

of making homemade candles and passing them out, but just didn't happen,

maybe next year)

21 : Holiday craft (sure, no clue what it was though)

22 : Go to The Nutcracker 

23 : ??? :/

24 : Make cookies for Santa

25 : CHRISTMAS!!